Anaesthetic or, no anaesthetic to x-ray or, not to x-ray

[tatiana4lettuce]

A few months back I took my budgie, Sky to the avian vet.

She had been holding her foot up for a while but was otherwise quite happy, preening and generally being herself. We thought she had caught it on the cloth the we put over their cage for shade when they're out in the sun. Eating was always a funny thing with her, she mainly was fed by our male budgie, Jet.

She had bloods taken and an x-ray and, sadly, she ended up being close to kidney failure. The diagnosis was, the failing kidneys were causing high uric acid and, consequently, gout hence, the foot  She never really recovered from the anaesthetic and started falling off her perch. She deteriorated rapidly and passed away a month later. Sorry to give you this horrific account but the point is coming up.

Her widower, Jet was in seemingly excellent health at the time. However, I came back from a work trip and found him unable to grip properly with the right leg. He is hopping along, using it minimally. He does rest with it down but without gripping the perch. When he holds it up, he does so without curling it under him rather, the toes are all opened out though, of course, still curling downwards. Mum who was taking care of him for me said that actually, this started 10 days ago.

Since I came back 3 days ago I separated his new mate who was pestering him, into another cage almost immediately so Jet would be left in peace. He is much calmer, eating very well, drinking, flying about, chirping and singing as he always would which makes me happy especially as Mum said he had been silent for over a week! However, when he sleeps, he leans his head more over to the left side, his tail feathers are not properly aligned and his wings are not lying flat.

If anyone has any opinions on whether this is an injury I would super appreciate it.

I have booked in with the avian vet tomorrow but am really torn because Jet has just managed to have a rest. I am so worried that the ordeal with upset him and that the anaesthetic will have a negative effect. The vet said that there might be a kidney issue which could be assessed by a blood test. I am veering more towards skipping the x-ray for the moment so that Jet has as little time under anaesthetic as possible and as the bloods will show us what is going on with the kidneys anyway.

I am also considering delaying the appointment until Thursday assuming that Jet will have settled, recovered from the stress of having been chased around by the other budgie for a few weeks and hopefully have regained strength before the vet appointment as he HATES being handled when not of his own accord and gets very scared 

But I am worried delaying could also be a mistake.

I am sorry for waffling on but I am pretty stressed and any insight that could help me make the right decision for Jet would be super appreciated.

Thank you <3

[stace]

Hi, I've sort of responded to your question in the other poop thread.

Can you ask the vet if it's possible to do the x-ray without anaesthesia?

[tatiana4lettuce]

Thank you very much Stace Ya, he said it is possible but he said that Jet would therefore have to be held for longer and get more stressed. :/ he also wants to take bloods and so, would take the blood then, I assume, give Jet some fluid replacement. The vet also suggested doing that when he's under to ease the stress of the injections. Have you ever had budgies take blood tests without a wiff of gas? I hate the idea of putting that mask over his face for him to breathe it in

[stace]

I don't feel I can advise you as to what to do. My vet tends to do as much as he can without interventions, but I know other vets do things differently. I do remember hearing Boo screaming from the x-ray room once, which I know was when he was being held for the x-rays (there were two types done I think). However it was over and done with really quickly. So there is certainly some amount of stress in all this handling.

As well as x-rays, he was given crop feeds filled with both meds, high energy formula and barium for the x-rays. These feeds were done once every four hours, two or three times a day over a series of days each week, and then for a series of weeks over a couple of months. Boo would be in at the vet for the day and I'd just bring him home overnight. Each week or ten days he'd get another x-ray to see how the blockage was going. It was pretty full on.

On one hand, that was a lot of stressful handling, but on the other, it would have been a lot of anaesthesia.

[Hezz]

The big difference here is with the different types of x-rays being used. I am fairly sure that Stace's vet uses a digital x-ray, as opposed to the older-fashioned ones that we are all mostly used to.

If the vet is avian or used to handling birds, they are going to do their level best to keep the anaesthetic to the barest minimum, keeping him under for the absolute shortest time possible. I have has a couple of budgies who have needed to be anaesthetised and I had total faith in the vet and vet-nurse doing the procedures.

In my mind, to make the decision to only have one procedure done is not going to make any discernible difference to how long Jet is under for. If you decide to go for the blood taking only, he is still going to be put under, and there is the possibility that he is going to have it done again, if you don't get the results from the blood tests that the vet was looking for.

Also if the vet thinks Jet will not stand up to an anaesthetic he/she surely will tell you. I have had a relatively sick budgie go through the procedure with no ill effects. There is always a slight risk, even for you and me to be given an anaesthetic so no one is going to tell you that they are 100% sure he will be fine.